"Game of Thrones" executive producer, Frank Doelger, was recently asked backstage at the BAFTAs, how long he thought HBO's series would run, and it turns out, that was a matter of discussion at the time.

"[The number of series] is being discussed as we speak. The third season was the first half of book three, season four will be the second part of book three. George RR Martin has written books four and five; six and seven are pending.

"I would hope that, if we all survive, and if the audience stays with us we'll probably get through to seven seasons."

That's some weird math. If book three is broken up into two seasons, one would think that they wouldn't even arrive at book four until season five, and if George R.R. Martin continues to be as, uhm, wordy as he has been, splitting other books -- in particular, the final book -- would seem likely, and maybe even necessary, given how many characters are already being given short shrift. Are they going to music-montage through Books 5 and 6? Maybe jump ahead a few years, and provide an exposition dump during an orgy?

Or maybe Frank Doelger was just drunk. Or doesn't know what he's talking about. Or, maybe there will only be seven seasons, in which case we'll be done in 2017, and then WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THE REST OF OUR LIVES?

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Comments Are Welcome, Bigots and Trolls Are Not

ferryman

They could wrap it up next year if they skip all the meals. Pickled eels with ostrich livers, candied slugs on wild rice, brown bear steaks with brown ale. Brown bread, brown sugared brownies, etc.

Strand

lemon cakes, boiled leather and leal servants.

ferryman

Aye, at some point I thought I was reading a medieval cookbook!

John G.

They have to do book 4&5 together, because he split them up by character not timeline. No way the series would do that, and GRRM wouldn't either if he had it to do over again.

Plus, as many have said, there's a lot of unnecessary stuff in Books 4&5 that feels like padding. The Kingsmoot could be reduced a lot in my opinion. They haven't even introduced Dorne yet in the series, so they could seriously edit that down. The books even have one chapter that's duplicated between books 4 & 5. Plus 4&5 is where GRRM really gets into the descriptions of what everyone is eating and wearing, and since the show is visual, we can just see what they're eating and wearing.

Book 3 is still the best book of the series hands down. I've read it 3 times. I may go back for another. Sooo fucking good. the show will never capture how fucking good book 3 is.

stryker1121

I think we definitely will see some major pairing down/condensing starting in S5. This season is already giving us some Book 5 action with a certain character. Kingsmoot and all the unnamed POV character stuff is not going to take much precedence in 10-episode seasons when this season is already jumping from character to character like mad.

kildarepaul

Wait for it.....

Milly

I just posted this in the spoiler thread, but it contains no spoilers save for ones about the entertainment of the books, but put a break in just in case.

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Genuine question from someone who just - about half an hour ago - finished the books (and the opening 12 pages from the next one).

Will the TV series actually follow the books, or will it deviate at some significant stage?

Could Martin see this as an opportunity to take his story to a different place than where he seems to have taken it, and have been trapped with no inspiration judging from the declining excitement of the books?

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I've avoided all spoilery type discussions until now.

Juwan Dickerson

Makes sense due to the direction of the story and also due to the shelf life of other HBO series. Sopranos went on for 6 Seasons, The Wire, and Six Feet Under went on for 5, I think True Blood is in it's 6th now. They are consolidating these books story wise for the series anyway and I'm sure that some of book 4 will be excised and consolidated into Season 4 and 5 respectively. Also with the concern about the kids, I know in the books the kids are much younger and it makes sense on the page but they did age them up for the series so by season 5 - 7 Bran is starting to look like Robb that will make sense maybe at least to me. We've been seeing TV kids literally grow up in front of our eyes for years, these shouldn't be any different.

SnowMan

8 Seasons and a [Dunk & Egg] Movie!

kildarepaul

Damm, this was my comment. With eggs.

Fredo

Just from a logistics standpoint, at some point, the "children" won't be children much more longer. If we're into Season 7 and Bran has a Hodor-like beard and Sansa looks like Ros' doppelganger, people are going to start going "Where the hell is this winter??!!"

There's also a burnout danger. At some point, everyone gets tired of the same thing. Seeing Jon mope and Joffrey bitchface for another few years would get old. Same for the actors. At some point, they will want out to do other things.

Perhaps the biggest danger is the cost. CGI cost is only going to get bigger and the cast and locales keep expanding. HBO had to do away with good, popular shows like Rome and Deadwood cause those got really expensive. And this is REALLY expensive.

I could see Books 3 and 4 (and even the start of 5) shoehorned into Season 4. Then use Season 6 to get us where we're at with the books. Season 7 would then have to do TWOW and ADOS -- maybe add one more season.8 seasons. Done.

melissa82

You left out Season 5 but other than that I agree with you whole heartedly!

4th season = second half of book 35th season = book 46th season = book 5

So 7 seasons is better than what we were promised. Since 4th and 5th books are set at the same time, but split by characters, i have no doubt they will mix them together and devide to the 3 seasons. Which is by far worse than having now game of thrones in 2017.

Briavael

To be fair the 4th and 5th books happen simultaneously, and there's not as much that goes on between them as the 3rd book. I could see Seasons 3 and 4 being devoted to A Storm of Swords, but it's hard to see that AFFC and ADWD could be broken up into multiple seasons. They may even be able to do them as one. Which would catch up and leave the last two books a season each.

Laura

There is a lot of crap they could cut out of 4 & 5 without ruining anything.

Sean Bean as Boromir wakes up in Rivendell just before the Council of Elrond? "I've had the strangest dream..."

Bert_McGurt

Makes sense. After all, I can't imagine they've got a lot of snow globes in the North.

cruzzercruz

From what I've heard, they've stretched well into the third book this season, and if the fourth book is full of fluff, maybe next season will wrap up both the third and fourth book. But they shouldn't call it quits too soon, let them finish it with the books coinciding.

AdmiralTubington

They have all the materials they need to finish the series whether Martin writes the books beforehand or not - he handed over his notes and outlines as part of his contract - so I say more power to them. I was so frustrated with books four and five that I'd sooner trust the show runners to give us an ending to this epic than Martin.

Honestly, it sounds like he misspoke, conflating seven seasons with seven books. On the other hand, there is a TON of superfluous material in book 4. Or, at least it seems superfluous, not knowing the end of the series of course. AND I know they say season 3 is representative of the first half of book 3, but they have moved way beyond the halfway point, and still have three episodes remaining.

Sherry

I've always assumed that just as they split book 3 (best of the series, IMO) into two seasons, they would reunite books 4 and 5 into one, just as they were supposed to be one book. That would neatly cut a lot of the superfluous stuff that I saw as filler just to make the books as long as expected.

I think that's a pretty good thought, but at this point I don't see how they're going to squeeze another season out of what's left of book 3?

MauraFoley

I'm assuming they're gonna squeeze in some of book four? Some of book four's events occur concurrently to the end events of book 3. With the pace their going they could easily have Gilly and Sam's trip to the Citadel with Maester Aemon happen in the fourth season (end of book 3).

pfeiffer87

SPOILER!! AaaaaAAArgh.

Sherry

That sounds right--some of four or even five; heck, they're already ahead on the Theon stuff (um, that's not a spoiler since it's happening now, right?). I really see them blending books after this season ends to make the pacing "right."

I wouldn't say they're ahead on the Theon stuff, just working around the confines of a tv show compared to a book. There's no way to structure that reveal in the same way.

Sherry

I just meant ahead of the books, not in terms of when it actually happened. Part of me is glad, part of me is wishing I didn't have to watch it all going down. (So to speak.)

Mrcreosote

A GoT montage would be the best. Score it to "Rock me like a Hurricane" and just have scenes of bloodshed and wanton gratitious sex. Call it the chronicles of Podrick and it will be the highest rated ep of the show.

Sara_Tonin00

Eh, seems about right. Just as I think American Gods would only be interesting for so long, ditto for this. Conflict and intrigue are interminable, but that doesn't mean I want my stories that way.